Every year, or at least every year since 2012, we’ve taken some time after the season was over to look at the past 162 games through the lens of the players that played them (and the management that was in charge of them). Last year, the Exit Interview series spent less time digging into splits and finding numerical oddities and more time reflecting on the player and their season. It was a style that seemed to work so we’re going to bring it back again this year. The legendary cardinalsgifs is back to bring us excellent series art, so it’s all downhill after you see that!
Player: Victor Scott II
Stats: 53 G, 155 PA, 14 R, 9 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 5 SB, 1 CS, .179/.219/.283, -0.5 bWAR
Statcast: 5.7% barrel, 33.3% sweet spot, 107.1 max exit velocity, .221 wOBA, .246 xwOBA, 27.1 K%, 3.9 BB%
Grade: C
While the Cardinals’ lack of player development has been going on for some time now, there may have been no clearer case of that dysfunction than that of VS2. After a breakout year in the minors, Scott had a strong spring. Nothing completely crazy, but a strong spring. He was headed for Memphis to start the season when Dylan Carlson and Jordan Walker had a chance encounter in the outfield in the next-to-last spring game. Suddenly down a center fielder, the Cardinals for some reason thought letting Scott be the Opening Day center fielder was a much better idea than Michael Siani, even though there wasn’t likely to be a significant different offensively or defensively and Siani already had major league time.
That went over…terribly. When he was sent down after three weeks, his slash line in MLB stood at .085/.138/.136. Perhaps in part because of the confusion of playing at the big leagues before he was ready, when he went down to Memphis he struggled as well. He didn’t get his batting average over .200 to stay until late June. Eventually, Ryan Ludwick tinkered with him a bit and results seemed to follow. He had a seven game hitting streak at the end of July/beginning of August where he hit .370. The Cards called him up then when Siani hit the injured list. Instead of sticking with him, especially since he was hitting .306 in the 13 games before, when Siani came back he was bumped to the bench (to work on things with the major league coaches), then back to Memphis before returning again before the end of the year. You wonder where he’d have been if he’d started at Memphis and only come up in July or August when he was ready.
What’s in store for 2025: Scott may be an interesting test of the new “player development first” focus of the Cardinals. There’s a really, really strong case to leave him in center, let him grow on the job, and see what he can do. After all, his offensive upside is significantly better than Siani’s and his defensive possibilities aren’t that far short. There’s also a case to let him be at Memphis, getting the reps in he should have gotten in 2024. There’s also what they seem to be indicating they are going to do, some sort of time share at the major league level, which seems like the worst of all possible worlds. Scott’s future may be the most intriguing story of anyone on the roster.
